tuesday is a joke /
played on those not quite prepared /
the same game again

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

waiting for failure. or attack.

after reading this interview with former vice president dick cheney, tpm media's david kurtz, like me, is smelling the stench of "i told you so" hanging in the air:

"The GOP's plan to regain political viability in the short term rests on two disaster scenarios: the failure of the financial rescue efforts (stimulus, TARP, and other bailouts) to stave off complete economic collapse and a new mass casualty terrorist attack -- both of which they are positioning themselves to blame Obama for."

8 comments:

Am I the only person who thinks, given the known attachments of certain Republican higher-ups to the middle east, terrorists, and oil men, that these same "doomsday-sayers" could be complicit in said attacks? Or is that too conspiracy theory?

Please be careful. This is Kurtz's opinion, not Cheney's. Kurtz's opinion is no different than the various right wing talking heads who made similar claims of those unwilling to go along withe Patriot Act, specifically that they were doing so to improve the chances of disaster to the US for the benefit of their political party or personal political gain.

Many decried those claims as unfair and unfounded. This Kurtz comment seems dangerously close to treading the same ground.

brett, i don't think kurtz is suggesting any conspiracy theory stuff here, and that's too off base to even consider. (for me, anyway. the internet, however, is a big, scary place...)

chris, i understand and second your caution.

but i think there is a huge difference between labeling a group of people unpatriotic or aiding and abetting terrorists (you're either with us or your against us) for opposing something like the patriot act, or suspending habeas corpus or privacy rights...and someone like kurtz noticing and opining that cheney and others seem to be lying in wait for the chance at political vindication.

i don't think kurtz is suggesting that cheney is actively doing anything to "improve the chances of an attack."

but i do think there is a sense in this country (from a few on the right) of anticipating failure, i.e. rush limbaugh's "i want president obama to fail."

a) there's likely to be another attack. There will (if we wait long enough, and cast the net wide enough, it WILL happen). Yes, we've had a pretty long run without a follow-up to 9/11, but there's too many variables at play not to expect another one. Perhaps we should start a pool?

b)failure of the financial rescue. the numbers...are...so...big. The "check" on this little party we've been having is going to be a doozy. As a % of GNP, we're not, say, at the debt levels of WWII (about 45% of GNP - we're well below that), but the MAGNITUDE is going to create scary pictures for years, and then some. There's no "morning in America" here - the hard choices are going to get tougher. Predicting that is pretty much "so what else is new", in my opinion...

Bush & Cheney left a big flaming bag of poo on the doorstep of the country and to sit in the bushes and snicker and point at what's about to happen next strikes me as about par for the course for these two.....